Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.

Tornado Alley? A Warming Planet?

I see where the people in the Midwest living in Tornado Alley are reluctant to build expensive safe rooms. They deny the threat of another killer tornado since the meteorologists don’t know for “certain” that another will hit them. This despite the exemplary work of the weather service in forecasting the Moore, OK tornado, with about 16-minutes warning; and the standing warning that chances are far from zero that another severe storm with tornados will strike their area. They are proud of their random survival, think they are “tough” and if they lose they just go to heaven. It works for them.

The trouble is, they make the decisions for national survival and global pollution for all of us, with a potent voting force in our democracy. The Midwest also is a stronghold of conservative thought about the science of Global Change/Warming. They deny the threat of changing climate, increased droughts and more severe weather that might result since the science isn’t 100% certain. They deny the simple solid science that: CO2 is a greenhouse gas and its presence produces a warmer planet; and the observations of skyrocketing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere with isotopic evidence that it is produced by us burning fossil fuels.

Perhaps our democracy will only work if we deny the Midwest (and South) the vote for a while, perhaps by requiring a simple test, say a simple science question before the vote counts.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.